This blog features my weekly column called "What's up in the sky". It is published every Saturday in the Ellensburg newspaper, Daily Record (http://www.kvnews.com/). While my postings will be most accurate for Central Washington, readers throughout the northern USA may find something of use.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Saturday: “The crow rises in the southeast,” said spy number
one. “I’m sorry. I don’t recognize that code,” replied spy number two. Spy one
exclaimed, “That’s because it’s not a code, you idiot. I’m talking about the
constellation Corvus the crow.” This very bad spy movie dialogue is to remind
you that Corvus had a very bad life. According to one myth, Corvus brought the
god Apollo the news that his girlfriend was seeing someone else. In a classic
case of punishing the messenger, Apollo turned the formerly beautifully colored
crow black. The box-shaped Corvus is one fist held upright and at arm’s length
above the southeast horizon at 10 p.m.

Sunday: Tonight is a great night to look for the Big Dipper.
Tomorrow will be a great night to look for the Big Dipper. In fact, every night
for many centuries will be great nights to look for the Big Dipper. But the Big
Dipper’s shape slowly changes over many, many, many, many centuries. (Have I
reached my word count yet?) Tens of thousands of years ago, it didn’t look like
a dipper and tens of thousands of years from now, it will no longer look like a
dipper. For a short video simulation of the changing Big Dipper, go to http://goo.gl/df1yV. For a look at the current
Dipper, face northeast at 8 p.m. The lowest star, Alkaid, is two and a half
fists above the horizon.

Monday: Vega is about a fist above the northeast horizon
just before midnight.

Tuesday: Mars is one fist above the east-southeast horizon
at 11 p.m.

Wednesday: If you ask an astrobiologist for the three most
likely places to find evidence of life in the Solar System, other than Earth,
they’d probably say Mars, Europa (“Didn’t they sing “The Final Countdown”?”),
and Enceladus. Mars makes sense because you know scientists have sent a lot of
probes there. Astronomers first discovered strong evidence of a large water
ocean on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, in 1989. However, Enceladus, one of
Saturn’s moons, first piqued astrobiologists’ interest a few years ago then
NASA’s Cassini probe discovered jets of water containing organic materials
shooting out. Last year, the German space agency started a project called
Enceladus Explorer, EnEx for short, to collect sample from deep within
Enceladus. For more information on the Enceladus mission, go to http://goo.gl/VPxzs. Jupiter and Europa are six
and a half fists above the south horizon at 8 p.m. Saturn and Enceladus are two
fists above the south-southwest horizon at 6 a.m. By the way, the Swedish group
Europe sang “The Final Countdown”. And they were “heading for Venus” in the
song, not to the worlds of the outer Solar System.

Thursday: You thought I forgot, didn’t you? Venus is a fist
above the southeast horizon at 6 a.m. It probably jumps out at you as the
brightest point of light in the morning sky.

Friday: In this busy world, it is important to know what
time it is. We have many devises that give us the time. A phone. A computer. A
watch. But who has time to build a phone, computer or even a watch. Not you.
But everyone has enough time to build a simple Sun Clock. All you need is a
pencil, a compass and a print out of the clock template. Go to
https://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/sunclock.html for more
information.

The positional information in this column about stars and
planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information
about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Saturday: Oh la la, the Ellensburg High School production of
“Annie Get Your Gun” opens tonight at 7 pm at McConnell Auditorium. Hear
classic show tunes such as There’s No Business Like Show Business, Anything You
Can Do, and I got the Sun in the morning and the zodiacal light at night. Well,
that last song might only be in the extended, astronomical version of the play.
In that version, Annie explains that the zodiacal light comes from sunlight
reflecting off dust grains in our solar system. The effect is the most visible
when the band of constellations called the zodiac makes a steep angle with the
horizon. You need a clear dark sky in the evening with no haze or light
pollution to see the zodiacal light. At its brightest, the zodiacal light
rivals the light of the central Milky Way. Look for the ghostly patch in the
west after twilight for the next few weeks. They Say It’s Wonderful. The
musical will be wonderful too. For more information about the musical, go to https://www.facebook.com/events/531375753608464/.

Sunday: If the National Enquirer was around in Galileo’s
day, it may have featured the headline: “Saturn has love handles; Opis leaves
him for a much thinner Mars”. When Galileo first observed Saturn through a
telescope, he reported objects that looked like bulges on either side of
Saturn’s midsection. He was actually seeing Saturn’s rings through less than
ideal optics. Saturn is two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above
the south horizon at 6 a.m. Mars is two and a half fists above the southwest
horizon at this time.

Monday: Jupiter is six fists above due southeast at 7 p.m.

Tuesday: For the next two mornings, Venus does a little
dance with the moon. At 6 a.m., Venus is about a fist to the lower left of the
moon in the southeast sky. Tomorrow, Venus will be about a half a fist to the
upper right of the moon.

Wednesday: Avast ye matey. Swab the poop deck. Pirates love
astronomy. In fact, the term “poop” in poop deck comes from the French word for
stern (poupe) which comes for the Latin word Puppis. Puppis is a constellation
that represents the raised stern deck of Argo Navis, the ship used by Jason and
the Argonauts in Greek mythology. Argo Nevis was an ancient constellation that
is now divided between the constellations Puppis, Vela and Carina. The top of
Puppis is about a fist and a half to the left of the bright star Sirius in the
south-southwest sky at 10 p.m. Zeta Puppis, the hottest, and thus the bluest,
naked eye star in the sky at 40,000 degrees Celsius is near the uppermost point
in Puppis.

Thursday: I hope you got your sweetie something red for
Valentine’s Day two weeks ago. If not, I suggest a nice picture of the Red
Valley on Mars. This January, the Mars Express probe took the first
high-resolution stereo color image of Tinto Vallis, or Red Valley, the mouth of
an ancient water flow on Mars. For more information and many photos of Tinto
Vallis, go to http://goo.gl/ptJcr. Mars
is one fist above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m.

Friday: Arcturus is two and a half fists above the east
horizon at 11 p.m.

The positional information in this column about stars and
planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information
about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Saturday:
This President’s Day weekend, let’s remember Abraham Lincoln: 16th
president, country lawyer, man on the penny, vampire hunter, and astronomer.
Vampire hunter? No. Astronomer? Well, maybe not an astronomer, but someone who
used observational evidence from the sky to solve a problem. In 1858, Lincoln
defended Duff Armstrong, a family friend who was accused of murder. The
prosecution thought they had a strong case because their primary witnesses
claimed to have observed the killing by the light of the nearly full moon. Let’s
listen in on the trial courtesy of the 1939 film, Young Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln:
How’d you see so well?

Witness: I
told you it was Moon bright, Mr. Lincoln.

Lincoln:
Moon bright.

Witness:
Yes.

(Dramatic
pause as Lincoln reaches for something)

Lincoln:
Look at this. Go on, look at it. It’s the Farmer’s
Almanack (sic). You see what it says about the Moon. That the Moon… set at
10:21, 40 minutes before the killing took place. So you see it couldn’t have
been Moon bright, could it?

Lincoln
used the known information about Moon rising and setting times for August 29,
1858 as evidence in a trial. This is one of the earliest uses of forensic
astronomy. You may confirm Lincoln’s findings on the Moon set time by going to
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php, the US Naval Observatory
website, and filling out Form A. For more information about Lincoln’s “almanac
trial”, go to http://goo.gl/dS56e.

Sunday: Headline
from the tabloids: Earth sends robot to Mars in order to take a selfie. In
January, the Mars Curiosity rover took a picture of its night sky that included
the Earth and moon. Both would easily be visible to the naked eye for a human
standing on Mars. Since you can’t go to Mars, go to http://goo.gl/DqprKF
look at the picture.

Monday: Jupiter
is six and a half fists above the south horizon at 6 a.m.

Tuesday: “Happy
Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Pluto. Happy
Birthday to you.” On this day in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, at that
time classified as the ninth planet. However, as astronomers started
discovering a lot of similar objects in that part of the solar system, they
realized that had a classification crisis on their hands. Should everything in
this region of the solar system be named a planet? Eventually the International
Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto and all future Pluto-like objects
as dwarf planets. According to his wife, if Mr. Tombaugh were alive today, he
maybe disappointed at the reclassification but he’d accept it because, as a
scientist, he’d recognize the implications the new naming scheme would have on
future discoveries. Besides, noted astronomer Hal Levison, while Tombaugh
didn’t discover the ninth planet, he discovered the Kuiper Belt and that’s a
whole lot more interesting.

Wednesday:
Spica is less than a finger width to the left of the moon in the southwest sky
at 6 a.m. Mars eyes them warily from above.

Thursday: Along
with Pluto, Tombaugh discovered numerous asteroids, variable stars, and star
clusters. Up until recently, the responsibility of naming all of these objects
would have belonged to the International Astronomical Union. But last summer,
the IAU revised their naming rules to let individuals suggest names for certain
celestial objects. For more information about this change, go to http://goo.gl/91fddH.

Friday: After
visiting Mars and Spica Wednesday morning, the moon has shifted eastward in the
sky and is about a half a fist to the right of Saturn in the southern sky at 6
a.m.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky,
go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Saturday: The universe contains everything from gigantic galaxy
clusters to tiny parts of atoms so it is difficult to visualize all of it on
the same scale. Cary and Michael Huang have created an interactive scale model
of the universe which allows you to “slide” from a vantage point outside the
known universe down to the smallest things ever theorized. To take this trip,
go to http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140112.html.

Sunday: Saturn is three fists held upright and at arm’s
length above the south horizon at 6:30 a.m.

Monday: At 10 p.m., Jupiter is about a half a fist above the
moon, high in the southern sky. A little later, Mars makes its way into the
evening sky, showing up just above the east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m.

Tuesday: This morning, Venus at its brightest for the
current viewing cycle. It is one and a half fists above the southeast horizon
at 7 a.m. Even though this is just a few minutes before sunrise, Venus is
bright enough to see in the highly illuminated sky.

Wednesday: Winter is a good time to see the thick band of
the Milky Way galaxy. It arches high in the high in the early evening starting
in the southeast by Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Climbing from
Sirius through the "horns" of Taurus high overhead, it drops down
toward M-shaped Cassiopeia in the north and the tail of Cygnus, the swan, in
the northwest.

Thursday: Do you have a date for Valentine’s Day? Of course
you do. You’ve been planning for weeks. But have you been planning for the
equally important Valentine’s Day Eve? I didn’t think so. Well, the Central
Washington University Astronomy Club has got you covered. They are doing
planetarium shows on the stage of the Hertz Hall auditorium on the CWU campus
tonight starting at 6 p.m. For more information, visit the club’s Facebook page
at http://www.facebook.com/CWUAC.

Friday: According to Greek mythology, the beautiful princess
Andromeda was chained to a rock next to the ocean. Cetus the sea monster was
about to devour her in order to punish her family. It seemed that all was lost.
But, along came the great warrior Perseus, fresh off his defeat of the evil
Gorgon, Medusa. The only similarity between Andromeda and Medusa was that
Andromeda caused people to stand still and stare at her beauty while Medusa
turned people to stone because of her ugliness. (And, you thought you looked
bad in the morning.) Even though Perseus’ standing as the son of King Zeus and
the slayer of Medusa was probably enough to win Andromeda under normal
circumstances, Andromeda’s impending death-by-sea-monster was not a normal
circumstance. So, Perseus drove his sword into the sea monsters neck and killed
it. In a little known addendum to the story, Perseus carved “Percy (heart
symbol) Andi” in the rock, thus originating the use of the heart symbol as a
substitute for the word “love”.

You can find these lovers in the sky this Valentine’s Day.
Just remember it is rude to stare – and you never know when you might turn to
stone. First, find the Great Square of Pegasus at 7 p.m. between one and a half
and three and a half fists above the west horizon. The lowest star in Andromeda
is the top star in the square. This represents Andromeda’s head. Perseus is at
her feet, nearly straight overhead. Mirphak, the brightest star in Perseus, is
about eight fists above the west horizon. Perseus’ body is represented by the
line of stars to the left and right of Mirphak.

The positional information in this column about stars and
planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information
about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.